Cheese-lovers across Australia are in shock today after a truck carrying a full load of Bega cheese crashed on the Princes Highway south of Nowra, closing the highway for half a day and causing traffic chaos.

The truck rolled and overturned around 10.30 pm on Monday. The driver, from Bairnsdale in Victoria's west, was taken to hospital while emergency workers attempted to move the truck, which had come to rest on its side across both lanes of the highway.

Workers had to clear 20,000 kilos of cheese from the accident site, moving it from the truck and physically scraping it off the road, to take it back to the factory to be weighed for insurance purposes.

Emergency services and volunteer Rural Fire Brigade members worked through the early hours of this morning and by 11am traffic was moving normally on the NSW South Coast, but at one stage was backed up for almost 12 kilometres.

According to Channel 7 earlier today, the driver was treated for shock. No other injuries were reported.

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